Border control by third countries should still respect human rights

PACE’s Migration Committee has urged the EU or individual states making agreements with third countries for “external” border control or asylum processing to ensure that they guarantee human rights.

In a resolution based on a report by Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC), the committee said that these externalisation policies had been introduced “without due regard for the need to ensure that their implementation does not jeapardise human rights”.

Member states should only “externalise” migration control to countries whose laws and practices meet the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Refugee Convention, the committee said.

Such agreements and arrangements should also include conditions to protect applicants’ rights.